A U. S. judge's ban on the use of any religious words at a Texas high school graduation â?? under the threat of fines and jail time â?? is actually the latest reflection of the sad state of the Evangelical church.

From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

A U. S. judge's ban on the use of any religious words at a Texas high school graduation â?? under the threat of fines and jail time â?? is actually the latest reflection of the sad state of the Evangelical church.

June 7, 2011 â?? On June 2nd, 2011 a United States federal judge ordered a Texas school district to prohibit any form of religious expression at a high school graduation ceremony. Judge Frederick Biery's order against the Medina Valley Independent School District also forbade students from using specific religious words including "prayer" and "amen."

Judge Biery's ruling also banned students and other speakers from using religious language in their speeches. Among the prohibited words or phrases were: "join in prayer," "bow their heads," "amen," and "prayer." He also ordered the school district to remove the terms "invocation" and "benediction" from the graduation program. "These terms shall be replaced with 'opening remarks' and 'closing remarks,'" the judge's order stated. His ruling also prohibited anyone from saying, "in [a deity's name] we pray." Violation of the judge's ruling would result in fines and jail time.

The lawsuit that prompted this order was brought by the parents of a self-described agnostic student who claiming that he would suffer "irreparable harm" if he heard prayers at his graduation ceremony.¹

A few days later, this ruling was overturned by an appeals court, but the case is not over. The parents who brought the lawsuit plan to continue to press their case on appeal. This is just the latest effort in the ongoing campaign by the "freedom from religion" movement to remove all recognition of God from public events.

Mixed Reaction

Many Evangelical spokesmen quickly condemned the original judge's decision, and applauded the judge who reversed it. But the organization known as Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which claims a considerable following among Evangelicals, took the opposite position. It applauded the judge who issued the order banning prayer, and condemned the judge who reversed it. One may think that all self-described Evangelicals would oppose the ungodly stand of Americans United, but that is not the case. I have been saddened to find the promotional literature of this evil organization in the foyers of American churches, particularly those in the Southern Baptist Convention.

The Question Christians Should Be Asking

The question Christians should be asking is this: How did it come to this? How did we come to the place where such a ban against prayer could be issued at all?

The fact is, American Evangelicals have looked on for decades as America's courts have issued a series of it-can-never-happen-here decisions. The first was the banning of school classroom prayer and Bible reading nearly fifty years ago. Then came the Rowe vs. Wade decision opening the floodgates of abortion and infanticide in 1973. Then came the decision of a supposedly conservative-majority U. S. Supreme Court overturning laws against sodomy in 2003. Then came the legalization of open homosexuality in the U. S. military by the United States Congress in 2010, and President Barack Obama's order prohibiting the United States Justice Department from enforcing the Defense of Marriage Act which bans same-sex "marriage." All of these were at one time "unthinkable" to most Evangelicals, but are now reality.

As the Church Goes, So Goes the Nation

How did it happen? These things came to pass because of a fact that professing Christians largely refuse to face: As the church goes, so goes the nation.

And so, what of today's church? A mountain of evidence, which we've frequently presented, shows that today's Evangelical church, by and large...

...Is the church unplugged - largely disconnected from its source of power and authority, the Word of God.

...Is the church uncertain - of what it believes, and why it believes it.

...Is the church ineffectual - palliating the symptoms of the world's sin-disease rather than preaching the cure.

Facing Biblical Facts

What is the answer? We must recognize what the Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:10-13. He puts it negatively, but then he also puts it positively. "We wrestle not against flesh and blood." Well, against what then? We wrestle against the Devil: "against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."

Christian, when you read these words, you are looking at what is most essential in the Biblical record and in Christian teaching. What is the problem of America today? What is the problem of the world today? What is the ultimate cause? It is not man! It is the Devil and his unseen forces and powers. That is the Biblical proposition. That is what God's Word says is the real truth of the matter.

Now let's face it. Here is something that is not only not believed today, it is rejected and ridiculed and scorned. It is regarded as a joke. The Devil! Principalities and powers! Unseen spiritual forces! The world says that this is an insult to a man's intelligence. You may even be thinking that as you read this article. How can anyone in the 21st century believe this? With the world as it is, are we really proposing to talk about the Devil, and unseen spiritual forces?

This is an insult to my intelligence. Why don't you tell us something practical? Why don't you tell us how to solve the political problems, or the economic problems, or the terrorism problem, or how to stop abortion? Why don't you face the facts? Why don't you face the stark realities of life in the 21st century, instead of talking about the Devil and his forces? This is nonsense. This is impractical.

That's what is being said, isn't it? The Biblical viewpoint is being utterly and completely ridiculed in the world.

But what is far more troubling is this: Not only is it being ridiculed by the world, it is being downplayed, ignored, and even ridiculed in the church. The Evangelical church to a great extent is preoccupied with the symptoms, and not dealing with the root problem.

What Of Your Worldview?

Let me ask you a question, dear reader: Does this come into your essential thinking â?? "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers"? Is this the basis of your worldview? As you look at the world as it is today, do you look at Ephesians 6:10-13, and do you say immediately, "Here is the explanation!"? Do you normally think like that, dear Christian? If you don't, you've got a very defective sort of Christianity.

This is an essential and vital part of the Christian faith and the Christian message. Paul says that you must think this way. You must never relax. You must never relent. And you must understand that this is the reason why it is the job of the church to do two things and two things only - to preach the Gospel to the world, and to nurture the saints in sound doctrine which produces right living.

That is the only answer! The Gospel and the Gospel alone is the answer for this troubled, chaotic world.

There is no telling what God will do if we His people repent of our un-Scriptural ways. The hand of God's righteous wrath is poised against America, and rightly so. This nation has fallen into great evil. The main reason is that the Evangelical church in this country has become the church unplugged, the church uncertain, the church ineffectual.

God's Word Tossed Behind Our Backs

It is bad enough that God's Word has been pushed aside in the public square. But in our time, the Word of God has been pushed aside within the Evangelical church. God's people need to repent. Often we find in the pages of the Word of God and in the history of the world that God was merciful to a nation because of a faithful remnant. We should not think it is too late for God's remnant to plead for His mercy. But we must be a faithful remnant.

Why is our nation in the shape it is in? The Bible has lost its influence. We read of a parallel situation in Nehemiah chapter 9. Here is the setting: A remnant of the children of Israel had returned to the land from captivity in Babylon. We read in Nehemiah 9:1 that all the people assembled together "with fasting, in sackcloth, and with dust on their heads...and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers." And what was the iniquity that they confessed? We find the heart of it in verse 26 - "Lord, we rebelled against You, and we cast Your law" - Your Word - "behind our backs."

Here is the picture: A man is walking along a road and he has the Word of God in his hands. And as he is walking along, he throws God's Word over his shoulder and lets it fall to the ground behind him, and he just keeps on walking. Utterly forsakes God's Word. Tosses it behind him. Rejects it. Treats it as useless. As a nation, that is exactly what we have done. This nation has been blessed above all nations in having God's Word in our hands. But we have taken God's Book, and we have tossed it over our collective shoulder, and we have just kept on going - farther and farther away from God's Word. The influence of the Bible on this nation over the last fifty years has gone down, down, down.

The Bible Lost Its Influence in the Nation Because It Lost Its Influence in the Church

Why has this happened? The Bible lost its influence in the nation, because the Bible lost its influence in the church. That is where the problem began. It began long before Madalyn Murray O'Hare decided to go to court to get prayer and Bible reading thrown out of the schools. It began long before the Supreme Court ruled that killing her unborn child is a woman's constitutional right. It began long before governments began passing laws that make Christian apologetics a hate crime.

The Bible subsequently lost its influence in the nation because the Bible first lost its influence in the church. The church has gone after all kinds of other things. In many ways, the church has tossed the Bible over its shoulder just as ancient Israel did. And that is where the problem must be solved - in the church.

But the answer to the political and economic and moral and social crises of our times is not for Evangelicals to organize more political pressure groups. The answer is not for Evangelicals to become involved in a wider range of so-called faith-based initiatives. The answer is not for Evangelicals to seek empty promises from political candidates. And the answer is not for the Evangelical church to reinvent itself to try to please the world.

The answer to the crisis of our times is submission to the Word of God. We need to repent. We need to go back. We need to go back and pick up God's Word that we have so lightly cast aside. And we need to get back into the Word. That is what ancient Israel did in the book of Nehemiah. We read in chapter nine,that during this time of repentance the entire remnant stood and heard the Word of God read and explained to them for a number of days for six hours a day, and they spent another six hours confessing their sins and worshipping the Lord their God in the proper way. True repentance. True worship. True turning to the Word of God.

That genuine turning to the Word of God meant that the Israelites saw that they needed to make some hard decisions. They had to give up practices, and associations, and relationships that were contrary to God's Word. It wasn't easy. Many tears were shed. But they did it. And God blessed them for it, and God re-established the nation, because the remnant repented.

The Healing of the Nation Requires the Repentance of the Church

God's warning to the nation of Israel in Second Chronicles 7:14 is also God's warning to His church today: "If My people who are called by My name" - He is speaking not to the nation as a whole, but to the people of God, God's remnant within the nation. "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways" - not the wicked ways of the nation, but the wicked ways of the people of God - "then I will hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."

Dear friends, as the church goes, so goes the nation. The healing of the nation will begin with the repentance of the church. The repentance of the church will come through faithful, prophetic, expository preaching of the Word by faithful men. Christian, never forget that you have the answer. Never get side-tracked into doing other things. That's what the Devil wants you to do. Don't do it. Remember, you wrestle, but not against flesh and blood. "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might."

References:

1. "Federal Judge Prohibits Prayer at Texas Graduation Ceremony", Fox News Online, as viewed on 6/3/2011 at http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/06/02/prayer-prohibited-at-graduation-ceremony/?test=latestnews

sac0036